Ontario Launches Digital Court Portal for Toronto Cases

Starting next week, Toronto residents, lawyers, and litigants will be able to access more court services online with the launch of the Ontario Courts Public Portal, the first phase of a provincewide digital system.

Digital Access Expands

The portal, set to go live on Tuesday, allows users to file documents, pay fees, and access virtual links for court hearings. Initially, the system will be limited to Toronto cases and will exclude criminal matters. However, it expands digital access for Superior Court family, civil, small claims, bankruptcy, Divisional Court, and enforcement cases, as well as provincial court family matters.

Future Phases

Phase 2 of the portal, planned for 2027, will incorporate criminal cases. The full provincewide rollout of the $166-million system is targeted for 2030, according to Attorney General Doug Downey.

Downey emphasized that the portal will enhance transparency and accessibility. “It’s going to create a significantly more accessible and robust system that will help [the public] have transparency and access their own court cases, filings, paying for things, getting documents out of the system,” he said. He also confirmed that paper filings will remain an option, noting that the system is “digital first, not digital only.”

Modernization Driven by Experience

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the courts’ digital adoption, but Downey said he had been focused on court modernization long before. Recalling his early years as a court clerk, he highlighted basic issues that needed updating, such as the inability to pay filing fees by credit card.

“When I became the attorney general in 2019, you still couldn’t pay for a filing with a credit card – very basic, entry-level-type stuff. So I was on a mission to modernize the system,” he said.

A Historic Transformation

Superior Court Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz, who requested the government procure an off-the-shelf digital system four years ago, described the portal as a historic transformation. “Long overdue, this new digital system will replace our currently disconnected technologies with one integrated, seamless platform across all areas of law,” he said. “This is a truly user-centered product for everyone: the judiciary, staff, as well as the lawyers and parties before Ontario’s trial courts.”

Downey noted that procuring the system from Thomson Reuters, which was awarded the contract in 2023, allowed for a quicker launch than building a platform from scratch. “My approach was that, let’s apply our expertise to what we need from it to customize it, as opposed to start from a blank slate and start coding,” he said.

Learning from Past Attempts

This effort follows a previous attempt by the former Liberal government, which spent $10.3 million on a court information management system with similar goals but abandoned it in 2013.